Global Lead Partner EN • EnglishDE • DeutschES • EspañolFR • FrançaisZH • 繁Welcome they commissioned Jorge Pardo to create a space as vibrant as their collection in San Juan – and never looked back","url":"https://www.artbasel.com/stories/cesar-mima-reyes-puerto-rico-art-basel-miami-beach-2024","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://d2u3kfwd92fzu7.cloudfront.net/asset/news/Ce_sar_and_Mima_Reyes_THMB.png","width":2400,"height":1500}}Many collectors say they like to live surrounded by art but few have a better claim to such an existence than César and Mima Reyes While one of their two Puerto Rican homes is crammed positively exploding with art from some of today’s biggest names the second house was designed by Jorge Pardo and could be considered a piece of art itself And when one lives inside an artwork by Pardo how much more ‘surrounded by art’ can one be ‘He made it without windows,’ César Reyes says ‘so you have all these sliding doors instead and it’s a very cinematic feeling when you look outside This weekend home in Naguabo sits atop a hill that overlooks the sea and could Pardo used materials common for homes in Puerto Rico and those ubiquitous metal grates that double as security and natural air conditioning you’ll notice the vibrancy of the colors Pardo has selected - the intense red of the grating and the supple yellow of the tiles like how the cabinets alternate these colors in the kitchen where Mima makes her meals or how light shines in a ‘mini-porthole‘ constellation in the bathroom ‘When it is raining hard, water might come into the house,‘ César says, ‘but then you just move to another part of the house.’ What little art the couple has in Naguabo is waterproof, like a piece by Abraham Cruzvillegas made from many buoys that hangs from the ceiling The project came about during a visit to the 1996 edition of Skulptur Projekte Münster where the Cuban American Pardo had created a pier made out of California redwood that reached out from a park and far into a lake the Reyeses had just acquired the land in Naguabo and wanted to see what Pardo might do with nature on a larger scale it was the second home Pardo ever designed Since then, it has played host to César and Mima’s numerous artistic friends. Peter Doig’s Black Curtain (Towards Monkey Island) where rhesus monkeys constitute the primate population It was a special trip to that island with César that inspired Chris Ofili to start his painting series of rhesus monkeys telling The New Yorker’s Calvin Tomkins that the experience of visiting that island with César ‘just stayed in my mind.’ Oller’s still life of mangos did require some extensive bidding at Sotheby’s These world-famous artists appear alongside a number of up-and-comers demonstrating that the Reyeses still have their fingers on the pulse and the yen to collect The Old San Juan home dates to the mid-1800s the colonial era when this section of the city was walled off the house has only around 1,500 square feet though it also boasts 20-foot-tall ceilings so the work can climb high The art may sometimes be hung frame to frame but nothing feels too crowded because of this verticality ‘I’m just very visually oriented,’ César says ‘It’s very stimulating to be so surrounded by art and the history behind some of the paintings is very uplifting too.’ In both of their homes it’s apparent that art is not a trophy but a totem to memories and experience César, a psychiatrist, first came to art when he befriended the Puerto Rican painter and sculptor Rafael Ferrer while at medical school in Philadelphia Ferrer’s work now hangs on their walls in San Juan for it was Ferrer who advocated that César go to London rather than Barcelona for his semester abroad César became interested in the School of London and began to collect Francis Bacon’s and Lucian Freud’s works on paper He began to wonder if he might start aiming younger Opening The New York Times one day in 1994 he saw a photo of Gavin Brown speaking on the phone and an appealing work behind him on the wall and the purchase marked the beginning of their fond friendship César hesitates to attribute his many friendships with artists to his keen eye or lovely homes I don’t think a lot of artists would have wanted to come.’ This article was originally commissioned for the 2024 issue of the Art Basel Miami Beach Magazine Art Basel Miami Beach will take place from December 6 to 8, 2024. Learn more here. Dan Duray is a writer, reporter, and editor from New York City. His work has appeared in The Economist, The New York Observer, Town & Country, the San Francisco CHRONICLE, Billboard, ARTnews, The Art Newspaper, Elle Decor.Published on November 18, 2024. All photos by Raquel Pérez Puig for Art Basel. From Guatemala to Panama, they’ve got you covered ReadHow Brazilian artists are redefining global art at Art Basel Miami Beach Combining Indigenous murals with Candomblé-inspired installations, a new generation is merging activism with heritage ReadDiscover eight fresh artistic voices at Art Basel Miami Beach Using materials ranging from sundials to bucking barrels, these artists give shape to under-recognized global histories Cover Page Legal HistorySports SearchPolaris acquires Punta Lima wind farm in NaguaboThe San Juan Daily StarNov 1 has entered into an Equity Capital Contribution Agreement (ECCA) with respect to Punta Lima Wind Farm LLC a wholly-owned subsidiary of Santander Bank N.A an operating 26-megawatt (MW) onshore wind farm located in Naguabo was reconstructed and recommissioned by Santander and has a 20-year power purchase agreement in place with the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) The transaction is being completed using a tax-equity structure which will result in Polaris becoming the manager and operator of the project with a controlling equity interest and Santander retaining a tax equity interest in the project The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions which principally consist of approval of the acquisition by local regulatory bodies as well as the execution of a corresponding LLC agreement It is expected that those conditions will take some 90 days to finalize The total equity contribution of $20 million from Polaris will be subject to customary closing adjustments including working capital changes Polaris intends to use cash on hand to fund the equity contribution Santander Corporate & Investment Banking acted as sole financial adviser to Santander Bank N.A “This strategic acquisition further deploys Polaris capital into another jurisdiction while adding wind into our generation mix,” said Marc Murnaghan “We believe that this transaction provides attractive near-term returns to our shareholders as well as enhancing our growth opportunities significantly This includes the use of energy storage to provide competitively priced energy and grid stabilization services as well as exploring further strategic opportunities on the island given its stated future energy requirements.” “Santander is proud to have rebuilt the Punta Lima wind farm in Puerto Rico and is very pleased to be selling its interest to a specialist partner in Polaris,” said Nuno Andrade Santander Corporate & Investment Banking “It was the right thing to do to support the island’s clean energy efforts and we are very happy with this outcome.”By THE STAR STAFF “It was the right thing to do to support the island’s clean energy efforts and we are very happy with this outcome.” © 2025 The San Juan Daily Star - Puerto Rico This work, Food and water distribution continues in Naguabo, by SGT Michael Broughey, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright Food and water distribution continues in Naguabo, https://www.dvidshub.net/image/3923195/food-and-water-distribution-continues-naguabo-puerto-rico Food and water distribution continues in Naguabo, https://www.dvidshub.net/image/3923193/food-and-water-distribution-continues-naguabo-puerto-rico Food and water distribution continues in Naguabo, https://www.dvidshub.net/image/3923190/food-and-water-distribution-continues-naguabo-puerto-rico Food and water distribution continues in Naguabo, https://www.dvidshub.net/image/3923187/food-and-water-distribution-continues-naguabo-puerto-rico 2019HOUSTON – Although he was facing toward the diamond a few feet behind the batting cages during batting practice Martín Maldonado easily heard the familiar voices over the buzz of autograph seekers crying out for their favorite Astros Machete!” yelled his childhood friend and former Little League teammate Omar Garcia the Astros’ catcher turned back and smiled after seeing Garcia and Vanesa Travieso who is one of Maldonado’s mom’s best friends from their hometown of Naguabo Maldonado ended a chat with Astros ace Gerrit Cole walked toward the exclusive Diamond Club seating section at Minute Maid Park and summoned Garcia and his mother Travesio to a corner behind the home dugout Garcia and his mother weren’t some random Astros fans Travieso and Maldonado’s mother were always at Little League games when Machete and Garcia were teammates Garcia wasn’t afraid to admit that he’s living vicariously through Maldonado these days “It’s a sensation that we wish I could have gotten there,” Garcia said Seeing him out there it’s like I accomplished a goal too Since he was 13 and 14 years old he was already a top prospect We  were there when he was picked by the Anaheim Angels and throughout his whole career Travieso relocated from her native Puerto Rico to Killeen which is almost 200 miles from the Astros’ Minute Maid Park after she was displaced by Hurricane Maria two years ago Her son joined her in Houston six months ago They were ecstatic when the Astros acquired Maldonado at the July 31 trade deadline They made a trip to see Maldonado play at Minute Maid Park soon after he rejoined the Astros for the second time in as many seasons at the deadline so they ordered some custom t-shirts in honor of their hometown’s big leaguer With an open Astros star logo on the right side in the middle Garcia designed it and ordered it in Killeen which is also home to the Army’s Fort Hood “We had the idea that we needed to have something different than the last time we visited,” Garcia said “Naguabo likes Machete because we have Machete mania.” sought a pen from a journalist and then tossed an autographed baseball to them “I’m very good friends with Martin Maldonado’s mom,” Travieso said His mom and I would make arroz con pollo (chicken and rice) so that the kids could eat all day without nagging us Few people know the sacrifices the Maldonados made to help Machete accomplish his childhood dreams quite like Garcia and his mom Travieso remembered how they all depended on others to attend most away games because neither family had a car The boys spent many hours playing baseball at Parque Villa Esperanza in their town “He’s from Villa Esperanza in Naguabo,” Garcia said We know what it’s like to get to the ballpark carrying a box of balls from one side to the other so we could practice “We would call him a slave to the ballfield Machete was usually eating Travieso’s famous arroz con pollo “He was very playful as a child,” she said He was a very good kid with his mother and father’s instructions © 2025 Minute Media - All Rights Reserved Internet Explorer lacks support for the features of this website please use a modern browser such as Chrome A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States Queen conch aquaculture can provide Caribbean communities with the opportunity to support and restore this unique snail species. Queen conch are vital to seagrass ecosystems and are the second largest fisheries in the Caribbean and habitat changes queen conch numbers have declined a partnership in Puerto Rico is working to farm conch for release into the wild and for sustainable seafood production conch has deep roots in Puerto Rico dating back to the indigenous Taino who ate conch and used its shell for art and the famous ‘Guamo’ the conch shell trumpet.” The organizations partnering on this project include: and operation of The Queen Conch Hatchery located in Naguabo “The Naguabo Queen Conch Hatchery in Puerto Rico is the first of its kind in that it is located in a Fishing Association and the fishers assist with the operation of the hatchery,” said Megan Davis Research Professor at Florida Atlantic University This project is the first time that a conch hatchery is part of a fishing association The fishers can diversify their income by assisting with the operation “Fishers collect the egg mass sections from their known fishing grounds and assist with the day-to-day work in the hatchery.” the fishers harvest conch egg masses from the ocean which are then placed in incubator cylinders in the hatchery the free-swimming larval conch feed on phytoplankton They live in the hatchery larval tanks for 21 days until they are ready to settle and become bottom-dwelling snails The juvenile conch are fed a gel-diet that includes macroalgae and are raised on sandy bottom tanks for a year before they are then transplanted out to the wild.    allows juvenile conch to grow to marketable size and provides future harvest opportunities for island fishers This outplanting also increases the odds of mature queen conch finding a mate to produce the next generation of conch Conch have internal fertilization and male and female conch need to be at a density of at least 100 conch per hectare (2.2 acres) in order to find each other for mating Too few mature conchs in the wild would impact new juvenile conch recruitment Along with the grant support and hatchery practices a large portion of the restoration work and future success rests in the partnerships built across stakeholder groups in Puerto Rico “All three partners bring complementary experiences and skills to the project,” added Davis The lab’s hope is to deepen people’s understanding of marine life and the importance of harvesting from the ocean respectfully “This project is built around the concept of inclusivity and collaboration which creates a welcoming space for all to learn about aquaculture and have first-hand access to the fields of STEM,” added Hatchery Manager Victoria Cassar Providing accessibility and restoring an ocean-based economic opportunity allows local communities to remain working on the water while using the conch harvest skills passed down through generations While daily operations continue under the direction of Hatchery Manager Victoria Cassar and Hatchery Assistant Marie Garcia the partnership team is also working to educate the next generation of conch farmers The hatchery’s latest addition to the team is local high school intern Hizdalimar "Dali" Montañez “Beyond the specifics of aquaculture education this project shows the potential for future careers in STEM as well as potential entrepreneurial opportunities that have not been seen before locally,” said Cassar queen conch aquaculture is working towards providing sustainable seafood improving economic opportunities in coastal communities aquaculture for commercial harvest and restoration continue to grow Naguabo Queen Conch Hatchery will serve as an example of the work that can be accomplished with meaningful partnerships Please help us improve PreventionWeb by taking this brief survey Your input will allow us to better serve the needs of the DRR community See the survey Hurricane Fiona brought wind and heavy rain to Puerto Rico on September 18 In the mountain community of Naguabo on the east side of the island But residents and emergency workers were able to evacuate just in time before the debris flow occurred a landslide geologist and professor at the University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez (UPRM) was tracking data from a monitoring station recently installed in the area When soil moisture conditions indicated that landslides were likely Hughes messaged community leader Jimmy Piña Martínez about the risk Piña Martínez used this information to warn neighbors to evacuate their homes no fatalities were caused by the debris flows "For several families in Naguabo, the difference between life and death was this soil saturation sensor,” NotiCentro WAPA-TV reported in a news clip that showed footage of a partly buried landslide monitoring station Although this monitoring station helped save lives, it’s just one piece of comprehensive ongoing efforts to make Puerto Rico safer from landslides. The collaboration and partnerships that enabled such quick and effective communication have been nurtured for years when rainfall from Hurricane Maria triggered more than 70,000 landslides across Puerto Rico and community leaders have worked together to create communication materials The Spanish-language guidebooks were distributed to residents when the monitoring stations were installed across 12 landslide-prone mountain communities Hughes and other scientists had conversations with community leaders and emergency managers about landslide risk and how monitoring stations could help and these partners helped to identify the best locations to install the stations These interactions generated the trust necessary to allow that one-sentence text message to spur the sequence of protective actions seen in Naguabo The success of the monitoring and communication effort in Naguabo serves as proof-of-concept for Puerto Rico’s pilot landslide forecasting network which will someday be able to publish real-time data products online that can be used to issue alerts to the broader public Hazards and disaster researchers can take lessons from this example and the collaborative work that has been carried out to protect people from landslides in the area many remaining needs to be addressed in Puerto Rico where people were still recovering from Hurricane Maria and the COVID-19 pandemic when Fiona struck along with the long history of colonialism in Puerto Rico have created or exacerbated numerous issues with infrastructure the progress made by collaborative efforts to reduce landslide risk points to the possibility of a safer future Please note: Content is displayed as last posted by a PreventionWeb community member or editor. The views expressed therein are not necessarily those of UNDRR, PreventionWeb, or its sponsors. See our terms of use Thank you. If you have 2 minutes, we would benefit from additional feedback (link opens in a new window) PreventionWeb is the global knowledge sharing platform for disaster risk reduction (DRR) and resilience Please select what you would like included for printing: Copy the text below and then paste that into your favorite email application Enter your phone number above to have directions sent via text This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply Service map data © OpenStreetMap contributors Authorities reported they have found a missing 64-year-old Wisconsin man on Tuesday who was separated from a hiking tour group while on vacation, according to Puerto Rico's Office of Emergency Management and Disaster Administration After three days of searching, Abdur Rahman was found near the Icacos River in Naguabo and was transported to a hospital, according to a tweet from the Office of Emergency Management The Associated Press first reported Monday that Rahman was hiking with a group when he became separated from them on Sunday According to the Office of Emergency Management six rescue groups worked on the third day of the search using dogs and a drone to find "the tourist" who had been reported missing in El Yunque since Sunday "On behalf of everyone who worked on this search, thank you to the family for their trust and for never losing hope," the agency wrote in a post on X Authorities also said that Rahman's family members, who had gone into the forest in the early morning hours to find him, were located and were safe, according to Puerto Rican news outlet El Vocero Rahman lives in Pewaukee, according to a report from TMJ4 Police said Rahman was a tourist staying in an Airbnb in Naguabo a beach town on Puerto Rico's east coast near the rainforest RELATED: Sade Robinson was reported missing before she was found murdered. At least 3 women remain missing in Milwaukee County This piece was originally published in Hakai Magazine and appears here as part of our Climate Desk collaboration As the blue-and-white skiff cuts across the bay to Naguabo on the eastern tip of Puerto Rico fisherman Gabriel Ramos is the first to come into focus the more details emerge: dive tanks clanking in the hull Only at the dock does the day’s haul become visible One is filled with slabs of carrucho—queen conch it’s the priciest item in the fish markets along El Malecón de Naguabo the nearby waterfront promenade known for fresh seafood is not the sliced white flesh heaped in the first bucket Ramos is pumped about what looks like a clump of shelly sand sealed in a sandwich bag and floating in seawater at the bottom of the second bucket A mother queen conch lays half a million eggs over a day or so in a gelatinous strand that would stretch longer than a semitruck trailer She camouflages the strand with sand as she goes fussing it into a tidy pile that could pass for a bit of coral or shell she will send nearly five million larval conchs a year into the sea Fewer than one percent will survive to grow into the Caribbean’s favorite marine snail with the glossy pink shell and sweet meat eaten across the 26 countries in its range A queen conch shell can grow as big as a football Its handle-like cavity gives it a similarly satisfying grip That heft makes queen conchs easy to spot and catch—so easy that overharvesting for their meat and shells has collapsed populations throughout their habitat in the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico The United States was the first to lose its queens which once thrived at the southern tip of Florida They have not rebounded despite Florida’s ban on commercial conch fishing since 1975 and all harvesting since 1986 the big sea snails were listed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora to monitor and limit trade Scientists have warned that the once-massive conch herds of The Bahamas—which exports nearly all the conch meat consumed in the United States—have now thinned below the minimum number needed for the animals to breed from shrinking the harvest to protecting greater swaths of the seagrass beds where conchs gather in herds to graze and breed where the animals are in decline but slightly better protected than in The Bahamas—with a closed season each summer to allow the conchs to reproduce Ramos represents another key piece too often missing from the conservation puzzle: giving the fishers a serious role in recovery efforts and compensating them for that work just like every other expert involved one of an estimated 800 fishers in Puerto Rico who dive for carrucho as a main source of income is part of this new reciprocal model that pays him more for collecting eggs than he earns from harvesting conch Scuba diving over a patch of seagrass this morning in about 15 meters of water Ramos grabbed a live queen conch—destined for market until he saw that it was a breeding mother Instead of slicing out the carrucho meat with his knife Ramos teased out a quarter of the egg mass with his fingers and returned the conch to her remaining sea-bottom brood Ramos hands up the bucket with the conch eggs as if it holds a donated organ on its way to a transplant Conservation biologist Raimundo Espinoza grabs the bucket and carries it into an aging dockside building The two-story complex is home to the Naguabo Fishing Association one of about 40 public-private fishing cooperatives in Puerto Rico that support members by buying and marketing their seafood Naguabo’s is one of the island’s oldest fishing co-ops founded more than half a century ago by the grandfathers of some of the fishermen who belong to it today Parts of the complex and dock are oddly twisted or missing—reminders of Hurricane Maria’s direct hit in 2017 and the risk of future storms But behind their repaired seafood market and gear-storage lockers members of the association have responded to the hurricane with an addition their grandfathers might not have imagined: a hatchery for growing their own queen conchs the Naguabo Queen Conch Hatchery burbles in an orderly network of pipes and filters Ramos and Espinoza peer through a microscope at sections of the egg strand under the keen eye of Megan Davis a marine research professor at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute who designed the hatchery and oversaw its construction by the fishers in 2021 Funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries’ Saltonstall-Kennedy grant program that supports fishing and marine aquaculture the hatchery is a partnership among the fishing association; Davis’s queen conch lab at FAU; and Conservación ConCiencia a Puerto Rico–based NGO founded by Espinoza to tackle poverty as a means to long-term marine conservation The egg strand swells with clustered cells that meaning the mother conch laid them when she started the strand Those with just two or four of the pearly cells are the youngest; perhaps laid just this morning Davis has learned that the larvae tend to wriggle from their eggs at about 9:00 at night Evolution has taught them that’s when they can swim free into the ocean currents with fewer predators lurking about To describe the hell that began in the early morning of September 20 fisherman Julio Ortiz holds his hand up to his neck the height of the sea when it entered his home When Hurricane Maria drew a bead on Puerto Rico Ortiz and many other residents felt sure it could not be worse than Hurricane Irma which they’d ridden out two weeks before They are accustomed to inundation from sea Naguabo is nicknamed El Pueblo de los Enchumbaos—the Town of the Drenched—for its six major rivers and the heavy rains that develop from the sea on one side and the tropical rainforest El Yunque on the other Maria arrived less like other hurricanes he’d experienced in his 59 years and more as if the sea itself rushed his barrio Ortiz had secured all his fishing gear in his locker at the Naguabo Fishing Association before sheltering at home across the bay He’d tied down his fishing boat in the front yard His wife had taped plastic over all the windows—so the couple did not see the ocean rushing their home When the seawater burst through the windows they glimpsed their car and truck submerged out front Ortiz’s fishing boat lurched on its tether they ventured back down and discovered how lucky they were to have lost only earthly belongings Power poles and trees had toppled in winds later estimated above 215 kilometers per hour; weather instruments built to withstand that speed were destroyed Ortiz and fellow fishing association members began clearing debris to reach their headquarters says association president Carlos Velazquez Maria had blown out the windows and doors and destroyed much of the dock The gear lockers were rubble and their contents lost Naguabo was used to securing most of its protein locally—residents buy fish and shrimp at the many small fish markets or from food trucks and cafes all of the seafood in the town’s freezers spoiled Food became scarce as days and then weeks passed with no outside help Collapsed bridges and cell networks meant residents were stranded without word from either the US government or the territorial government 75 kilometers away in San Juan a young father with a special interest in social justice drove into this chaos two weeks after the storm A native of Ecuador whose family moved to Puerto Rico when he was in college Espinoza earned degrees in conservation biology and sustainable development in the United States before moving to San Juan for a NOAA coral reef management fellowship He later joined the Nature Conservancy (TNC) and established its Puerto Rico program becoming the first TNC employee in the territory But he missed working directly with fishers From his earliest field experiences in college—like the time he showed Costa Rican kids how they could make more money by guiding tourists to sea turtle nests than by selling the turtle eggs—Espinoza saw how putting people at the center of conservation projects brought the best He left TNC and founded Conservación ConCiencia in 2016 he made his way slowly through downed power lines and trees to the fishing association complex at El Malecón It was some of the first aid to arrive in Naguabo “He came just when we needed him,” Ortiz says Hurricane Maria’s human toll would reach 2,975 dead across Puerto Rico including indirect deaths such as kidney patients who couldn’t access dialysis it was easy to overlook what happened to marine life as the worst hurricane in the island’s modern history tore through the sea When the fishers finally got out to their grounds they found Maria had ripped up seagrass beds where queen conchs herd It had smothered conchs and lobsters with sand and silt And it had sent tonnes of debris into marine habitat—including hundreds of traps that were now lost and inadvertently killing sea life Working with Naguabo’s and other fishing associations across Puerto Rico Espinoza set up two emergency relief projects with funding from the Ocean Foundation One paid fishers to retrieve lost gear on the seafloor including the traps—most of which turned out to be illegal The second project replaced lost fishing gear with sustainable gear Espinoza paid fishers to dive for errant traps and other gear that had been swept out to sea These projects were the most positive experience Naguabo’s fishers ever had with scientists even going back to his father and grandfather’s time “We’ve been through a lot of biologists and we’ve had bad experiences,” Ortiz says including scientists who convinced them to show them their fishing grounds—only to advise the government to close those grounds “[Raimundo is] the first biologist we’ve gotten along with.” So when Espinoza brought them the idea of working with an aquaculture scientist to rebuild their association with a queen conch hatchery—with the fishers paid to help construct it and harvest the conch eggs—they were all in the conch eggs collected by Ramos now hang in an incubation cylinder in a larger tank of seawater have developed tiny black eyes and a wee orange foot They begin to spin inside their egg capsules—as if readying for the race ahead Right on schedule—it is 9:00 on a Friday night—the embryos start to hatch into what are known as veligers atom-shaped free swimmers that drift for kilometers on ocean currents in the wild Thousands of veligers fill the tank like animated sand grains They dart with the flurry of newfound motion They glint in the dark seawater like the stars of the universe on a pitch-black night Megan Davis has grown queen conchs ever since her first job out of college managing an experimental conch hatchery on the Turks and Caicos Islands at the age of 21 and an idealistic goal to help save the pink conchs she had loved since childhood vacations sailing the Caribbean with her family though her long hair has turned silver and her goal has developed into a blueprint for a locally run hatchery in every nation that shares its seas with the queens was part of the utopian vision of a navy nuclear engineer turned philosopher-biologist named Chuck Hesse Before commercial tourism took off in the Turks and Caicos he saw the islands as a model biosphere for ocean conservation In her two years running the outpost from 1981 to 1983 queen conchs will undergo their metamorphosis—from pearly eggs to swimming veligers to shelled infants—in the lab Once they’re tiny sea snails with four-millimeter-long shells where they take another year to grow into finger-long conchs Bulking into a breeding-age queen can take three years longer or more some conchs mature more quickly than others; shell thickness is a better gauge of adulthood than age and built the world’s first commercial queen conch farm on the island of Providenciales Davis was a cofounder and the farm’s chief scientist Caicos Conch Farm raised millions of conchs in huge round corrals in the shallows and grew into a major ecotourism destination Davis eventually returned to Florida to earn graduate degrees in marine ecology with bigger ambitions to expand into fish farms Hurricanes Irma and Maria battered the utopian dome set against the blue-green sea who has spent the ensuing decades working on conch aquaculture in her FAU research lab and a series of small conch farms around the Caribbean (She also specializes in sea vegetable crops and makes a mean purslane salad.) during free time at a meeting of NOAA’s Marine Fisheries Advisory Committee on which they both serve Davis and Espinoza got to talking about their shared interest in artisanal aquaculture Davis loved Espinoza’s approach of paying fishers for their expertise and labor He thought locally run queen conch hatcheries would make ideal proving grounds for normalizing compensation to fishers “There are ways to share benefits—to bring them on board and help them generate income from their expertise—just like the rest of us make a living from our expertise,” Espinoza says “It is fundamental to making the fishing community part of conservation policy and it is fundamental to environmental justice.” “The profit when converted to cameos and other objets d’art is enormous,” Sir Augustus J. Adderley, Bahamas fisheries commissioner to Britain, wrote in 1883. “I am under the impression that this fish is not so plentiful as it used to be, and that its protection is desirable.” He wanted to advise a closed season to avoid fishing out the queens, “but I fear it is not practicable.” The hatchery is a place to work when it’s too stormy to fish. It is a source of local protein for times when food becomes scarce. It is for people as much as for conchs, a small, safe harbor in the Town of the Drenched. The juvenile conchs, shells large enough to balance on your fingertip, are now moved to shallow blue tanks stacked like shelves in the courtyard-style nursery. A gauzy fiberglass roof lets in the sun. Sand covers the tank bottoms to replicate the seafloor. The juvenile queens burrow into the sand and stay buried for much of their first year of life, peeking out with periscope eyes. We depend on ad revenue to craft and curate stories about the world’s hidden wonders. Consider supporting our work by becoming a member for as little as $5 a month. Follow us on Twitter to get the latest on the world's hidden wonders. Like us on Facebook to get the latest on the world's hidden wonders. NAGUABO, Puerto Rico — As Damarys Cantero awakens her 6-year-old daughter in their damp, sweltering home, ocean waves crash up against the pile of rubble that was once their front porch. The single mother opens a bag of buns in the kitchen to find that, yet again, rats had nibbled their way through. The rodents have been creeping in for months after Hurricane Maria ripped out Cantero’s front door and windows. A few miles away, Melinda Colón, 52, wipes away tears as she looks down at the remnants of her existence still scattered across the yard: a mattress, a broken door, a piece of zinc roof. In the mountains on the other side of town, Luz Vázquez Román bathes with buckets of water from a creek, producing a rash that is ravaging her skin. Down in the city center, the only 24-hour emergency psychiatric clinic is seeing a nonstop stream of patients, some contemplating suicide. Though obvious markers of devastation are fewer islandwide — power has largely been restored, and potable water flows somewhat reliably — Maria’s aftermath cripples nearly every aspect of life here, from Naguabo’s peak to the sands at the edge of the sea. It is one of the numerous places in Puerto Rico where recovery has barely begun and routines are far from recognizable. Cantero and her three sons are still sleeping on the same mattresses that were caked with mud from the rising waters. The moldy ceilings of her seaside home have led to breathing problems. She hasn’t been able to work cleaning houses because all of her clients moved away after the storm. “All around me, I live with Maria here,” Cantero said. “We have to get used to what she left us.” If the people of Puerto Rico faced devastation in September 2017, they have been facing disruption ever since. A Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation survey across the island finds that 25 percent of Puerto Ricans say their daily lives are still disrupted a year after Maria. Some 39 percent of residents here say their lives are largely back to normal, while 36 percent say their lives are almost back to normal. Residents in the eastern region, like those in Naguabo, went without power far longer than those in other parts of the island. Three-quarters say grid power was not restored until January or later, more than three months after Maria hit, compared with half or less in other regions of the island. In the eastern region, one-fifth of residents went more than half a year without electricity. Many didn’t have safe water to drink. Others struggled to get health care. Many lost their jobs or had other economic setbacks, especially in places like this town, which relies heavily on the fishing industry and farming, both upended because of the storm. For most Puerto Ricans, Maria’s winds fully exposed the island’s vulnerability, making the future full of haze, akin to the Caribbean sky this time of year, when the winds of the Sahara blow sand across the Atlantic. It’s hurricane season again, said longtime Naguabo resident Ramon Cantero, and the people aren’t ready — the government isn’t ready. “The next one will wipe Puerto Rico off the map,” the 70-year-old said. The survey found that the majority of Puerto Rican residents agreed with Cantero. The island’s power grid, people and government are not ready. This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. #spch.spch.s2tb-h .spchc {\n background: #fff;\n box-sizing: border-box;\n box-shadow: 0 2px 6px rgb(0 0 0 / 20%);\n height: auto;\n margin: 0;\n min-width: 100%;\n overflow: hidden;\n padding: 24px 115px;\n }\n#spch.spch.s2tb .spchc .inner-container #spch.spch.s2tb-h .spchc .inner-container {\n opacity: 1;\n transition: opacity 0.318s ease-in;\n }\n#spch.spch.s2tb .spchc .inner-container .text-container The Associated Press reported Monday that Abdur Rahman was hiking with a group when he became separated from them on Sunday Puerto Rico's emergency and disaster agency said on social media Monday it is continuing to search for "a person reported as lost yesterday in El Yunque," and that groups are searching the Rio Grande and Naguabo areas in addition to utilizing drones in the search The search party is comprised of about 30 people divided into four groups El Vocero reported Monday that several of Rahman's relatives who entered the El Yunque grounds attempting to locate Rahman The news outlet also reported that Rahman's relatives told police he is diabetic and has a heart condition According to the U.S. Forest Service which is responsible for overseeing El Yunque the forest is located in Puerto Rico's northeast region and is a popular tourist destination The agency says that while the forest is one of the smallest in size it is also one of the most biologically diverse Gabe Hauari is a national trending news reporter at USA TODAY. You can follow him on X @GabeHauari or email him at Gdhauari@gannett.com This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Crews search for US tourist who went missing in Puerto Rico: Reports superintendent of the Loudoun County Public Schools in Virginia issued a statement on Tuesday condemning a now-viral video showing a middle school student harassing a 5-year-old Asian boy with racial slurs Catch up: The April 5 incident saw the perpetrator from Eagle Ridge Middle School use ethnic slurs while following the frightened preschooler who repeatedly pleaded “Don’t hurt me!” as he ran to his home’s door previously shared that their son appeared confused by the slurs The president left critics lost in a word salad He is the son of former Montreal Canadiens centre Shayne Corson.The victim's identity is subject to a publication ban She was 15 at the time of the assault in 2016 which occurred at her residence and involved two other players.The defence was seeking a condition Mahendra Patel was looking for Tylenol in a Georgia Walmart two months ago when he encountered a woman with two children – riding a motorized cart she was driving – and asked her for help to find the medication Nurse Aliza Sherman was waiting to meet her divorce attorney at his office on a Sunday afternoon when she was fatally stabbed in broad daylight was described as an "outstanding father and son" by his family A woman told the sexual assault trial of five hockey players Monday that she felt "numb and on autopilot" going through sexual acts with a group of men she didn't know in a hotel room seven years ago emergency room for four days in January 2024 The public coroner’s inquiry into his death will hear from nurses The children's stepfather said Monday he was worried they may have been abducted A former Wisconsin high school teacher faces charges after being accused of having sex with a student in a high school parking lot Talal Fouani appeared before a judge on Monday so that his warrants could be vacated.Fouani called an allegation that he tried to book a charter flight to the Caribbean "inaccurate and damaging." "People thought I was fleeing the country and Global NewsSearch for missing N.S. children enters third daySearch crews were on the ground in Pictou County on Sunday continuing the search for four-year-old Jack Sullivan and six-year-old Lily Sullivan The siblings were reported missing on Friday morning efforts are ramping up as the search enters its third day Greece (AP) — A 17-year-old Polish high school student appeared in a Greek court on Monday after being arrested over the killing of a 16-year-old girl in Poland The alleged misconduct took place on a April 13 flight from Florida to California was charged with child abuse after allegedly admitting to police that her actions were "excessive" a woman was denied Nova Scotia's housing benefit for survivors of gender-based violence multiple times due to program policies A 17-year-old teen has been charged with first-degree murder nearly three weeks after two people were fatally shot in Toronto's Riverdale neighbourhood were shot near Bain and Logan avenues in Toronto's Riverdale neighbourhood around 11 p.m Officers found the men suffering from gunshot wounds when they responded to reports of gunfire in the area that night The family of an Indian international student who died in Ottawa late last month is frustrated with how police have handled the investigation and how few details they've shared.Vanshika Saini was a 21-year-old student about to graduate from Algonquin College with a degree in health administration Saini's family in northern India learned she was missing on April 26 the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) told them she had This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page Colossal Belgian street artist ROA (previously) has been touring Puerto Rico painting his signature monochromatic menagerie around the island Depicting both native creatures like parrots and seahorses and invasive species like lionfish the massive pieces celebrate the region’s biodiversity and the biologists and conservationists working tirelessly to preserve it Many of the murals are anatomical and juxtapose life and death a recurring theme in ROA’s body of work and one that’s apparent in his most recent rendering in Isla de Cabras wrinkled manatee alongside a lengthy skeleton Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member now Join more than 200,000 subscribers and get the best of art and visual culture from Colossal Copyright © 2025 Colossal. See our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy Puerto Rico was hit by the hurricane Maria—the residential areas in the coastal zone of the Caribbean Sea was significantly damaged the clients sought the help of Architects Fuster + Architects who had to build a dwelling not far from the fishing town of Naguabo This Puerto Rico house is designed to tackle the climatic challenges of the region Of course, the first priority was to design a building that is safe and resistant to hurricanes. Second, it was important to make the structure energy efficient and create a strong connection with the environment The studio chose the simplest possible shape—a rectangle with a flat roof which provide natural ventilation and lighting the wind that blows from the sea is sucked in and circulated through the house The external curtains do not allow strong winds to blow inside To protect the building from the hurricanes the architects closed the window openings with special external curtains made of a material resembling canvas blends in with the white façade of the house and at the same time helps withstand strong winds the house resembles the work of the artist Christo,” the architects aver That's because he loved to wrap sculptures buildings and natural landscapes in fabric The rectangular structure on one side has an absolutely blank facade but the part facing the sea is completely glazed and provides residents with a stunning view the east-facing rooms open onto a covered terrace with a built-in triangular pool 1 / 5ChevronChevronThanks to the chimneys, the wind that blows from the sea is sucked inThis article first appeared in AD Russia The material on this site may not be reproduced except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast Puerto Rico — Edwin Diaz remembers the fundraisers He remembers the way his mom set up softball tournaments to help pay for him and his team’s showcases as a kid He remembers how people in his neighborhood would spend money at the shop adjacent to the field here just to give him a chance in a profession where everyone wants to make it but almost no one does The Mets closer was around 15 when people started thinking he could be the rare success story he told Newsday — the kid who’s talented enough and dedicated enough and lucky enough to make it to baseball’s biggest stage And when he made his major league debut with the Seattle Mariners seven years later “I knew all those people were watching me.” after all — one of the prides of a tight-knit town: young and humble with a dominant pitching arsenal that was mature and downright disrespectful when the family was in pain — when Hurricane Maria struck in 2017 leaving Naguabo drowned in water it couldn’t drink and powerless for what would end up being around seven months — the son returned Family is there to celebrate the triumphs like major league debuts it’s built to support you through the tragedies “The sky looked like all of Puerto Rico was burning down,” he said while driving through the streets of the neighborhood where so much of his family still lives When I got here [about a week after the hurricane] I was living in an apartment and I couldn’t live there because it didn’t have electricity and the [complex] didn’t let the people have generators I came back here to live with my parents for about a month because they had a generator here.” and his brother Alexis Diaz in their hometownof Naguabo What Diaz did then has been well-documented throughout the years He worked with then-Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina to put together fundraisers In collaboration with Major League Baseball he slowly helped bring electricity to the region When a swarm of earthquakes hit Puerto Rico in 2019 and 2020 “God has blessed them by allowing them to make the big leagues and we’re very proud of the commitment they made,” Garcia said in Spanish shortly after watching his son distribute baseball softball and T-ball gear to youth teams in the area This is why Diaz chose to play for Team Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic last March if healthy and able when the tournament comes back in 2026 despite the catastrophic injury he sustained to his knee while celebrating on the mound then he doesn’t have the type of crippling regret that could have unmoored a complicated rehab process It paid off: He said he’s 100% and expects to have no restrictions come spring training representing our country is something big,” he said “This community has been together for a long time Mets pitcher Edwin Diaz during a visit to his hometown in Naguabo There are hundreds of the kids at this field in the Daguao neighborhood of Naguabo and most of them are from teams that Diaz funds He’s there giving out catching equipment and overstuffed Wilson duffel bags full of bats It’s part of a collaboration with the Amazin’ Mets Foundation which provides gear for teams around the world This trip to Puerto Rico stops at three towns — Naguabo which has been especially hard hit by natural disaster It’s a $75,000 investment that benefits 50 teams in one day and part of the $323,000 investment in equipment the Amazin' Mets Foundation has made so far this year sits shotgun in the van while wearing a Roberto Clemente jersey where Molina is taking fielding practice with the Puerto Rican Professional Baseball League team he manages it’ll help them go and play ball somewhere That’s a problem that we have here and in the States The parents rather have the kids play PlayStation not having them in the baseball park and exercising I think this is a way to help in that cause.” the former catcher for the Minnesota Twins Tampa Bay Rays and Cincinnati Reds is also here Seeing guys like Diaz and Lindor come back we didn’t have a type of hero like that,” said Valentin who was born a little more than two years after Clemente I think that’s a big support for them and the family Lindor couldn’t make it on this particular day and he’s well aware of the responsibility that comes with that “It means a lot to me” to know how the kids feel about it “I’m happy to hear them tell me that I’m an idol or a role model or someone who’s doing exactly what they want to do … Meeting someone that comes from the same place who probably went to a very similar school and played on the same field — [maybe] that makes them feel they can [live a major league dream] said he’s seen the shortstop’s impact firsthand was heavily involved in providing aid in the wake of Hurricane Maria “It’s pretty funny at times” to see kids’ reactions to him They come to him and either thank him for something or tell him how much he’s their favorite player You can tell they really look up to him as a role model.” Diaz Garcia will happily talk to reporters but he has a condition: Hospitality isn’t dead He hands out the plastic plates and throws them out when it’s done He’s got a quick smile and an almost mischievous way about him and his love for his sons comes through his pores Beatriz Laboy Méndez — the mom who put together all those fundraisers — is wearing a split jersey: half Mets for Edwin and half Reds for Alexis it’s clear Edwin’s injury took an emotional toll Finally — finally — his dad got to watch his boys play together only to end it all wondering if the best closer in baseball would even pitch again “The person who was injured — Edwin — was the one who gave us the strength to carry on,” he said “It was good to see his strength as he told us We’re going to recover.' That helped us overcome this obstacle a lot.” Both Diaz and his dad said he probably could have pitched last season and doctors were very pleased with the recent test results he got in New York working with his personal trainer and sending dispatches back to the Mets “I want them to grow up like I grew up — running in the streets riding bicycles and doing all those things,” he said We were a bunch of kids playing around and joking around … Almost all those guys [still] live here they come here almost every weekend because their parents live here.” He tries to spend the weekends with his parents in the offseason lives down the block and waves when he passes by Her house is all but an art installation — decorated lavishly for the holidays A group of kids line the streets and stare into the van he’s riding in to catch a glimpse even though they just saw him on the field “You can see this town is really humble,” he said But the community made sure he and Alexis didn’t stay there and Diaz has consistently paid the favor right back The Newsday app makes it easier to access content without having to log in Unlimited Digital AccessOnly 25¢for 6 months "Casa Flores," was developed by Fuster Arquitectos in Naguabo A jury comprised of internationally renowned professionals selected the best of Architecture in Puerto Rico by announcing the winners of the prestigious Honor Awards 2020 a competition held annually by the American Institute of Architects - Puerto Rico chapter (AIAPR) the jury gave the Honor Award for Excellence in Architecture in the "Completed Work" category to the "Casa Flores" project in Naguabo "Understanding the characteristics of the place and the traditional passive systems as strategic tools capable of defining the architectural expression of the building and generating conditions of comfort materiality and wind protection are the parameters that define the form achieving an interesting relationship with the environment The result is a successful reinterpretation and updating of the vernacular architectures typical of hot countries," the jury said A second Prize of Honor for Excellence in Architecture in the category of Completed Work was awarded to the Restoration of the San José Church carried out by the firm Jorge Rigau Arquitectos PSC respectful and imaginative exercise in the historical recovery of one of the most representative buildings in Puerto Rico This research is extended to the integration of new construction systems using contemporary tools and materials to guarantee the durability of the work The result is an elegant mix between respect and interaction that should serve as an example for the development of similar projects in neighboring contexts." the jury awarded an Honorable Mention to the project “Modular Metal: Auction Pavillion” located in Caguas and carried out by the firm Miguel del Río Arquitectos The jury valued the exercise of economic restraint and the creation of a simple from standardized and industrialized materials "The beauty of the building resides in the pure application of common sense which achieves an architecture of high expressiveness In the category of Theoretical and Research Projects the jury awarded an Honorable Mention to the project "Buscapié" by Astrid Díaz for its "sustained work in the dissemination of architecture focusing the discipline from the point of view of everyday life and necessary with a clear and accessible language to reach the entire population is the result of their persistent work to build bridges between the profession and society so that Architecture is understood as a close tool capable of solving all kinds of issues regardless of type "Villa Pabellón," by JR Coleman-Davis Pagán The jury this year was comprised by architects Elaine Molinar principal partnet of Undurraga Devés Arquitectos For more information, visit www.aiapr.com Email notifications are only sent once a day Your browser is out of date and potentially vulnerable to security risks.We recommend switching to one of the following browsers: We have the address for the funeral home & the family on file If you're not happy with your card we'll send a replacement or refund your money Couvertier created this Life Tributes page to make it easy to share your memories